996006 The Production of Culture Perspective in Sociological and Historical Research (S) (WiSe 2009/2010)

Since the so-called “cultural turn”, sociology and history take a great interest in analysing culture, focusing on its meaning and/or reception. The seminar wants to take a step back and asks what happens before content reaches the recipient, looking at actors, media, markets, organisational structures and processes that are involved in the creation, distribution and evaluation of culture. Reading and discussing key literature from sociological and historical research, the seminar introduces to the production of culture perspective and offers concepts that the participants may find useful for empirical research in areas such as music and movies, the news or science. Participants are encouraged to present their own research projects and discuss them against the background of the seminar´s readings.

As an introduction and a case study participants should read Richard A. Peterson, N. Anand, The Production of Culture, in: Annual Review of Sociology 30 (2004), 311-34, and Richard A. Peterson, Why 1955? Explaining the advent of rock music, in: Popular Music 9/1 (1990), 97-116. Both texts are available via JSTOR.

For participating, please send an e-mail with your name and affiliation and indicate whether you are a Phd or a master student to klaus.nathaus@uni-bielefeld.de.

A certified participation requires continuous engagement and an oral presentation at one meeting. M.A. students can obtain a marked certificate if they hand in an essay of about 15 pages.